Even Fox News Agrees ~ Ryan's Lyin'

. . . to anyone paying the slightest bit of attention to facts, Ryan’s speech was an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech. On this measure, while it was Romney who ran the Olympics, Ryan earned the gold.
~ Sally Kohn on Fox News

Blitzer: So there he is, the republican vice presidential nominee and his beautiful family there. His mom is up there. This is exactly what this crowd of republicans here certainly republicans all across the country were hoping for. He delivered a powerful speech. Erin, a powerful speech. Although I marked at least seven or eight points I’m sure the fact checkers will have some opportunities to dispute if they want to go forward, I’m sure they will. As far as mitt romney’s campaign is concerned, paul ryan on this night delivered.
Burnett: That’s right. Certainly so. We were jotting down points. There will be issues with some of the facts. But it motivated people. He’s a man who says I care deeply about every single word. I want to do a good job. And he delivered on that. Precise, clear, and passionate.
~ CNN Anchors at the RNC, Via Talking Points Memo

As for Ryan, it’s scary that he could lie so brazenly to the millions of people around the country who tuned in to watch the Republican National Convention. But what’s scarier? That quite a few of those millions will have hung on to and believed every word he said.
~ Tracy Bloom on Truth Dig

The sanctimonious V.P. nominee seems to have forgotten the Fourth Commandment: “Thou shalt not lie.” Ryan believes he can say anything and get away with it.
~ Joan Walsh on Salon

But really, the proper response to a speech like [Paul Ryan’s] isn’t to carefully analyze the logic, or to find instances of hypocrisy; it’s to call the speaker out for telling flat-out lies to the American people. Paul Ryan has had what I’ve long thought was an undeserved good reputation among many in the press and in Washington. It shouldn’t survive tonight’s speech.
~ Jonathan Bernstein in Washington Post

Ryan talked about moral creed, but his budget slashes programs aimed at protecting those that he said we have an obligation to protect. If that is the Romney/Ryan American dream, then voters -- young, old, middle class, African-American, Latinos and women -- would do well to say thanks, but we'll keep our hope and change even if it takes four more years to get there.
~ CNN

Ryan actually pushed the envelope, peddling new fantasies, like the spin that says: “Obamacare comes to more than 2,000 pages of rules, mandates, taxes, fees, and fines that have no place in a free country."
This will come to news as news to Britain, Canada, Germany and other American allies that somehow keep the light of liberty shining even as they guarantee all citizens access to quality healthcare.
~ John Nichols on The Nation

So the Democrats have to raise their game. They’ve never had to encounter this kind of buttery demagoguery before. Their campaign is going to have to be almost as much against Ryan as against Romney. (Does anyone think Romney’s speech is going to be more effective to the intended audience? I’d be awfully surprised if it is.) They have to rebut his lies, and they have to do it without sounding bitter or afraid or superior or haughty. That’s not easy to do. But it’s the challenge of this campaign. If they can’t win the Ryan war, they’re done.
~ Michael Tomasky on Daily Beast

But here's the thing: Most of the millions of people who watched the speech on television tonight do not read fact-checks or obsessively consume news 15 hours a day, and will never know how much Ryan's case against Obama relied on lies and deception. Ryan's pants are on fire, but all America saw was a barn-burner.
~ Dan Amira on New York Magazine


The Six Worst Lies in Paul Ryan's Speech
~ Think Progress

Pants on Fire: The The False Truths Paul Ryan Told During The RNC (LIST)
~ Global Grind

The Lies People Are Willing to Accept From VP Nominee Paul Ryan
~ Hyper Vocal

Paul Ryan's speech: a round-up of his most audacious untruths
~ Guardian UK

Paul Ryan's speech: a round-up of his most audacious untruths
~ Guardian UK

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Harry Reid ~ Evil Genius and Hero

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From Business Insider

Harry Reid Is The Democratic Party's Evil Genius

~ Romney has backed himself into a corner that will be tough to get out of. If he relents to Reid's demands, then Reid wins. If he doesn't, then Reid and other Democrats will keep making it an issue.
~ Reid has pretty successfully made this issue a loaded question. The only way to completely disprove Reid is to release the tax returns. And if he doesn't, it will add to the perception that there's something veiled behind his "put up or shut up" words. Because...
~ Keep in mind that a majority of voters — and, crucially, Independent voters — want Romney to release his tax returns, according to Gallup. In the clearest sign that Romney has bungled this issue, most people think that a presidential candidate's tax returns are irrelevant, except in Romney's case.
~ Reid doesn't have to worry about re-election — if, at 76 years of age, he will seek re-election — until 2016.

Reid was a boxer in his youth, and what he did to Romney was the equivalent of a head butt.
~ Eugene Robinson in The Washington Post

Four Pinocchios for Harry Reid’s claim about Mitt Romney’s taxes
This whole exchange poses a fact-checking conundrum. Generally, we maintain that the person or the campaign making the charge must back it up. Reid has refused to provide any evidence, except for the (unproven) fact that someone called him up and told him something that may be true — or simply a rumor.
. . . We use a reasonable person standard here. Without seeing Romney’s taxes, we cannot definitively prove Reid incorrect. But tax experts say his claim is highly improbable. Reid also has made no effort to explain why his unnamed source would be credible. So, in the absence of more information, it appears he has no basis to make his incendiary claim.
~ So-called "Fact Checker" for Wa Po, Glenn Kessler admitting that he can't check anything, which illogically proves somehow that Harry Reid is wrong

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
When is the last time any of these a$$hats scolded, say, Mitch McConnell or John Boehner for acting inappropriately for their "position of authority"?
The double standard is ridiculous.
~ comment by happy camper on Daily Kos

Kessler, like other fact-checkers, is really hung up on this idea that tax experts—as opposed to, say, Mitt Romney—can clear up whether Harry Reid is lying, which is irrelevant to anything because the issue is not about Harry Reid. It's about Mitt Romney. But that's something lost on the hacktastic fact-checkers. Kessler even speaks to "a number of tax experts," who agree . . .
The idea that asking tax experts to explain what might be in Mitt's taxes, or how much he might have paid, or which loopholes he might have exploited is a gigantic steaming waste of time. Why speculate? Why not just look at Mitt's tax returns to know for certain what's in there? Oh yeah. Because he refuses to provide any evidence to back up his incendiary claims.
. . . Reid holds a position of great authority—Mitt Romney merely wants to be president of the United State of America. Clearly, Reid carries that additional burden of accuracy that simply does not apply to Mitt.
~ Kaili Joy Gray on Daily Kos

Reid is punching away, having the time of his life. Nancy Pelosi has his back. It's not Democrats who are shirking from the attack, despite the fact checker's bullshit "tsk, tsks," it's the Republicans who are in disarray over how Romney should respond (read this National Review editorial, and then for laughs, read the comments).
We wouldn't have Republicans and the Romney campaign so dramatically off-message, for yet another week, if it wasn't for Reid. The old boxer is showing some fight, and if he had to go down into the gutter to land his blows, all the more props to him.
~ Markos on Daily Kos, after making Reid the "Democrat of the Week"

I have no idea why Reid decided to go all-in on this point. Maybe he's just fed up with the Republicans and what they've done to the Senate that he loves. Maybe it's some sort of intramural Mormon brawl that the rest of us just don't understand. I am open to any suggestion based on the concept of pure old-dude cussedness. I don't have any idea whether Willard Romney paid no taxes, or some taxes, or paid an annual tribute to Anubis, Egyptian God Of The Dead, over the years in question. Neither, I would point out, do Glenn Kessler, or his tax experts, or the PolitiFact elves, or Reince Priebus. This is because Willard Romney, unlike any presidential candidate of my experience, declines to share those details with The Help as he seeks to be appointed CEO of America.
~ Charles P. Pierce on Esquire

The media tolerates no end of birther nonsense and other paranoid fantasies from the right, but let Harry Reid accuse Mitt Romney of not paying his taxes and all hell breaks loose. . . . What really seems to be going on here is that a Democrat is successfully engaged in the sort of hardball tactics that Republicans usually have a monopoly on, and the media don’t quite know what to make of it. When it comes to making wild, unsubstantiated allegations, the GOP benefits from the soft bigotry of low expectations—at this point, few people can bring themselves to get that worked up about insane Republican mudslinging. Yet when a Democrat even tiptoes in that direction it’s news, and a chance for pundits to demonstrate the bipartisan bona fides so valued in the Beltway. ~ Michelle Goldberg in The Daily Beast


A major case of Reid-Rage.
~ Rachel Maddow

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HURT: The improbable reign of Harry Reid, mumbling gangster - Washington Times: washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/… via @washtimes

— Patrick Malley (@OleSarge51) August 7, 2012

Yep, Henry Reid is my hero of the week week, too.Dems can learn a lot from him! dailykos.com/story/2012/08/…

— Lorena Gonzalez (@LorenaSGonzalez) August 7, 2012

Liars, Damned Liars, and Harry Reid: americanthinker.com/2012/08/liars_… #tcot #Romney #USA #NObama

— MBKing (@imsure) August 7, 2012

Harry Reid is a genius!

— Cate Kurtis (@CateMayday) August 7, 2012

It's been 8 days since Harry Reid released his statement about Romney not paying taxes.. Come on, Mitt - Show us your taxes!

— Doug Porter (@dougporter506) August 7, 2012

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